Which cellphone service is fastest in Fayetteville?

The fastest cellphone service in Fayetteville is T-Mobile and the slowest is AT&T, according to the speedtest.net website of the Ookla internet speed testing company.

Those are the results as of Aug. 4. Ookla tested data speeds in Fayetteville of T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the three major cellphone companies in the United States. There are other cellphone services, but they usually use the networks of the big three. For example, Mint Mobile uses T-Mobile’s cellular network.

In addition to providing telephone and internet data services for cellphones, the companies offer home and office wireless internet services. These wireless services compete against traditional wired broadband internet providers such as Metronet, Spectrum and Brightspeed.

The faster the signal, the more quickly that data can be transferred to and from the customer. A slower signal results in lower-quality video calls, for example, or poor-quality television streaming. Also, the more people who share a signal, the faster the signal needs to be to accommodate their combined usage.

The speed is measured in megabits per second, abbreviated ”Mbps.”

Wireless internet customers receive the internet data signal with a device commonly called a hotspot. The internet signal is then forwarded via wifi to nearby laptop computers and other electronic devices that connect to the internet.

Here are the ranges of wireless internet speeds that Ookla reported for Fayetteville:

• T-Mobile: As slow as 65 Mbps to as fast as 461 Mbps.

• Verizon Wireless: As slow as 35 Mbps to as fast as 235 Mbps.

• AT&T: As slow as 27 Mbps to as fast as 146 Mbps.

And for comparison, here is the range of speeds for wired providers Metronet and Spectrum in Fayetteville:

• Metronet: As slow as 158 Mbps to as fast as 583 Mbps.

• Spectrum: As slow as 103 Mbps to as fast as 428 Mbps.